A CASHIER felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end after discovering a deadly South American banana spider nestling in a bunch of bananas.

The highly-venomous arachnid was spotted by Kate Whitmore, 25, as she unpacked a box of fruit to put on display at the Co-op store in Wayfield Road, Chatham, Kent.

The palm-sized eight-legged creature, otherwise known as Phoneutria nigriventer, ranks alongside the black widow and funnel-web as one of the world's most dangerous spiders.

Recalling the close encounter during her Monday night shift, Ms Whitmore said: "I lifted the lid off the box, ripped the bag open and in the very first bunch I noticed something.

"I picked the bunch up, held it close to my face and thought, 'What is that?' It wasn't a very nice spider."

After alerting her supervisor, the shop was promptly closed while the RSPCA was called out. They were advised to keep the spider contained and not approach it until the animal collection officer arrived.

Mother-of-two Ms Whitmore said: "He lifted the separate bunch off with leather gloves and put it in a box which had a separate container. He asked to borrow a pen and as he nudged it to try to move it into the container, the spider reared up, hissing and put its fangs out. It made us all jump."

RSPCA officer Anthony Pulfer said: "It was very aggressive and trying to go for me when I was putting it in the box. It was really jumping around and trying to attack me."

Ms Whitmore added: "We had customers coming in saying, 'We'll kill it for you, it's only a spider'. We thought, 'If you knew exactly what it was like you wouldn't'."